Four hundred years after cataclysms swept the globe.
The once seemingly eternal empire had crumbled into oblivion. All that remained were scattered city-states rising through the mist, faint reflections of bygone glory.
Some said everything would be rebuilt from the ashes.
Others believed this was merely the twilight before the ultimate end.
***
June. Northern Federation, Haizhou, Yacheng.
Under the blazing sun.
Across a sky washed brilliant white by the glare, scattered clouds drifted aimlessly. Stirred by the ocean breeze, the reflections trembling on the sea's surface gradually blurred amidst the waves until they were lost. With the faint cries of gulls ringing out, the entire coast seemed submerged in the rhythm of the tide.
To the people of Haizhou, this was an everyday sight, hardly worth a second glance.
Yet on this muggy, sweltering afternoon, broken only by the buzzing of cicadas and thinning traffic, the atmosphere inside a certain auto repair shop was growing increasingly tense...
"Little Master Ji, take a look at my headlights. Don't you think something's wrong with them?"
Reflected on the sports car's glossy finish, a slender, delicate arm draped itself gently over the young mechanic's shoulder.
Hearing this, the youth lowered his gaze and peered closely at the enormous headlights.
They were large, bright, and seemed to stare right back at him with sultry, coquettish charm.
"There does seem to be an issue."
Ji Jue leaned back tactically and delivered his verdict. "Looks like a minor scrape. A standard detailing session should fix it up. As luck would have it, our shop just rolled out a 998-yuan care package. It includes full-body waxing and four deep cleans—an absolute steal. Right, Brother Feng?"
"Ah, right, absolutely right!" Not far away, a sturdy, grease-stained mechanic nodded like a madman.
"Oh, stop it~"
The female car owner leaned in, playfully bumping Ji Jue's shoulder.
"Then what about this exhaust pipe?"
She whispered a plea into his ear. "My husband says every time he drives, it screams so loudly it makes my heart flutter with fright. Could you be a dear and blow through it with something for me?"
Ji Jue turned toward the exhaust.
The weathered exhaust pipe stared back at him, dark and cavernous.
"Best to just replace it."
Ji Jue concluded without hesitation. "Coincidentally, our shop just received two fresh pipes. Both are certified Mustang parts, authentic pieces straight from Universal Heavy Industries... Yours to take home for only 12,888! Brother Feng, come take a look!"
As he spoke, he tried his best to back away, yet found no escape from the clingy woman beside him. He flailed in vain, looking for all the world like a little hamster caught in the coils of a python.
"No, I still feel like something is wrong with this car..." Biting her lip, the woman with long, perm-waved hair let her sultry gaze linger on him. "Lately, the engine's been spitting out way too much fluid. In fact, it looks like it's leaking right now. Won't you check it for me?"
"That serious?!"
Ji Jue gasped in shock. After staring long and hard at the innocent engine beneath the hood, he solemnly concluded, "It's probably suffering from neglected maintenance. I recommend our 24,999-yuan full-vehicle overhaul. Sign up today and you'll get premium floor mats and air fresheners on the house. Once we're done, I guarantee it'll handle just like it rolled fresh off the assembly line!
"Right, Brother Feng?"
"Ah, right, absolutely right!" The man holding the wrench nodded vigorously. "Sign up for a prepaid membership card right now and you'll get a twenty percent discount! Action speaks louder than words!"
Unfortunately, despite all the sales pitches, the car owner didn't spare him a single glance.
Instead, she pressed herself almost entirely against Ji Jue.
It was as if she had no bones at all.
"But my husband can only drive it for two minutes before he's completely spent. He claims the kickback is too intense to handle." The woman bit her lip, batting her eyelashes. "Little Master Ji, do you think he's telling the truth?"
*How the hell should I know!*
Ji Jue desperately wanted to tell her that asking Little Master Ji was useless. He was only nineteen and had barely three and a half years of repair work under his belt—he had no experience in that department. For that sort of thing, she needed to consult Big Master Ji!
Wait, she seemed to be aiming for his Big Master Ji all along...
Still, this woman clearly didn't look like an easy mark. What if Big Master Ji came out, took a beating from her, and ended up throwing up?
He was terrified!
Ever since childhood, he had endured far too much unwanted attention of this sort.
Back in school, it was only upperclassmen and delinquent girls who eyed him. But ever since he took up this side job, bad women from society had been popping up constantly, coveting his handsome face and trying to get handsy. And now... this one clearly wanted a free ride without even bringing a gift! What had happened to common decency?
Utterly conceited and totally revolting!
Ji Jue frantically shot glances at the mechanic beside him, but Lu Feng had already gone quiet. Leaning against the wall, Lu Feng simply watched the show, gloating at his misery.
Until a savior descended from the heavens...
*Thud!*
A deafening crash shattered the silence as a colossal figure appeared at the doorway. Resembling a mountain of flesh, she dumped two brand-new tires onto the floor.
"What's all this nonsense?"
With arms as thick as an ox's, broad enough to gallop a stallion across, the buzz-cut female boss wiped grease onto her apron. Her puffy, dead-fish eyes swept over them. "Need an engine swap? I can do it... You two got nothing better to do? If you're so free, go unload the truck of tires out front into the warehouse."
"Right away! Tires, tires—I love tires!"
Seeing his boss rescue Big Master Ji from peril, Ji Jue beamed with joy. The female customer's face twitched, visibly irritated by the interruption. But as the boss radiated an intimidating aura that could conquer mountains and rivers, fixing her with a cold, dead-eyed stare, the customer's lips parted once or twice before she swallowed her words.
To smooth over the awkwardness, she pinched the cheek of a kid doing homework behind the counter, tossed out a "What a cute little boy," and promptly hopped into her car to drive off.
Lu Feng, having had his fill of amusement, watched the departing pair of massive headlights and clicked his tongue in regret. A second later, Mother Lu smacked him upside the back of his head with a resounding slap, nearly sending him tumbling across the floor.
He scrambled up, grinning. "Aiya, Ma! If you'd come just a minute later, she might've signed up for a 9,999 gold membership!"
"I run a garage, not a brothel! Doggy, are you asking for a beating?!"
Mother Lu barked in fury, using his childhood nickname, clearly worked up. "Loved the show, did you? Now that you've watched your fill, haul those tires, and then get your ass to the backyard and clean out the latrine!"
Now it was Ji Jue's turn to watch the show from the doorway.
Spectacular.
Truly spectacular!
Unloading a truck of tires took little effort. The shop had an old forklift, and Lu Feng, a veteran back from the service, possessed plenty of brawn. Naturally, there was no need for a working college student like Ji Jue to exhaust himself.
Business thinned out in the afternoon.
Once the tires were stowed and two cars washed, everyone sprawled out in the shade, idling away the hours.
Mother Lu supervised a few children doing their summer homework, while Lu Feng lay on a mat, giggling foolishly at short videos on his phone. Ji Jue, meanwhile, borrowed the shop's ancient desktop computer—which was likely as old as he was—and resumed working on his thesis.
Bathed in the afternoon sunlight, the youth's handsome profile drew admiring glances from passing girls and older women alike.
The only pity was the burn scar that crept out from his collar, climbed his neck, and spread onto his cheek. Ghastly and jagged, it was a blemish on an otherwise fine piece of jade, drawing sighs of regret. Had it not been for that, he might have debuted as an idol.
At the very least, wealthy older women would have waved stacks of cash to invite him into their sprawling villas to dance and sing. Wouldn't that beat turning wrenches in a place like this?
Yet Ji Jue felt no regret, nor had he ever felt there was anything wrong with working in a repair shop.
In an era rampant with cataclysms and hardship, it was hard enough for an orphan cursed with rotten luck and departed parents to survive. For kindhearted people to take him in, never deduct his wages, and constantly find ways to help him out was already a blessing from his ancestors.
What was more, he had managed to get into university. While his food and clothes weren't luxurious, he never went hungry or cold. Compared to his bleak, lonely past, life was visibly improving.
Since the heavens had granted him a chance to stand on his own two feet, he would rely on his own abilities to live a decent life.
He had neither the right nor the excuse to slack off.
"'Design and Analysis of a Joint Featuring a High-Precision Harmonic Reducer'?" Lu Feng poked his head over, growing dizzy just reading the title. "What kind of gibberish is this?"
"Roughly speaking, it's a mechanical joint design paired with a compact gear reducer," Ji Jue explained. "Mechanical equipment uses this principle to lower rotational speed and boost torque."
"Oh, a flexible joint, right? I saw those on exoskeleton armor back in the army."
Lu Feng caught on instantly. Slapping Ji Jue's shoulder, he looked even happier than if he had struck it rich. "Not bad, Xiao Ji! Impressive stuff!"
Ji Jue smiled and shook his head. "Far from it. The professor gave me a leg up."
The new planet carrier that formed the foundation of the thesis and design was Professor Ye's own research achievement. To let Ji Jue have a slice of the pie was already an extraordinary windfall.
Besides, aside from the proposal report, the rest was basically an empty framework, leaving Ji Jue walking on eggshells.
With Professor Ye's notoriously strict standards, if he messed it up, she might deem him useless and kick him straight out of the research group. He was counting on her recommendation letter to sit for the Level 2 Engineer exam; he couldn't afford to be anything less than diligent.
Unfortunately, his work was cut short. The old computer tower began to buzz and rattle, its cooling fan wheezing in agony—clearly unable to handle having two web pages open alongside a word processor. Ji Jue had no choice but to take a break.
Glancing down at his watch, he saw it was just past four.
He pulled out a tissue and carefully wiped away the grease on the bracelet, thorough and meticulous.
Truth be told, these days, for all but a handful of people, wearing a wristwatch had shifted from a practical necessity to a way to show off. Otherwise, why not just pull out a phone to check the time?
Was it because they forgot to charge it last night?
Times were changing.
Years ago, when Ji Jue's maternal grandfather was still around, their family's Hengshi Horology had been a celebrated brand throughout Haizhou. Back then, whenever a family's son qualified as a sailor, he would unfailingly visit the shop to buy a gull-pattern pocket watch. Once he put on his uniform, with half the chain dangling from his pocket, he would turn the heads of countless young women.
Unfortunately, Ji Jue's parents died early, and the world shifted too fast. That modest past glory had long since crumbled into dust. All that remained for Ji Jue, besides an old storefront that likely could never reopen, was a smattering of modest craft skills—and this watch left behind by his parents.
To tell the truth, after all these years, Ji Jue had never figured out what brand the watch actually was. Based solely on the intricate, machine-like emblem on the dial, he guessed it had probably been used for time synchronization in some precision work.
Its design was rare, distinct from almost anything on the market. It resembled the styles early mariners favored, yet mariner watches typically featured perpetual calendars or moon-phase displays. This watch, aside from its hands, held only an enigmatic small window.
Two tiny rows of numbers inside seemed to shift with time, slowly ticking upward, though at an agonizingly gradual pace. When Ji Jue first wore it as a child, the number was merely 06. Now, it had reached 92.
Stranger still, it had no crown for adjusting the time, no slot for a winding key, and not even the faintest seam.
Ji Jue had once borrowed a high-precision microscope from his school's laboratory, yet he failed to locate a single joint or solder mark on the case. It was completely seamless, a single integrated piece, with even the crystal sealed flush inside.
He had once left it on his desk for months, observing it daily. It continued to tick away normally, proving it didn't rely on the swing of an arm to wind itself... So where did its power come from?
Could this thing actually be a perpetual motion machine?